Nostalgia ain't what it used to be

Who Dun It (Part one of two)?

Date: 01 December, 2015

By: Chief

t is incredible. It really is. Fourteen years after the World Trade Center was turned into a pile of dust people are still fussing over 'who-dun-it'. It seems as if the attack has taken on a life of its own. Some of the conspiracy theories are way, way out there. Indeed, some are so far out there that I'm not even sure where 'out there' happens to be.

Not overly long ago a friend of mine asked me to take a look at a video. It is an interview with the interviewer being a Muslim (I think) woman and the interviewee being a U.S. citizen who just happens to be of Jewish descent. He also has been a 'this' and a 'that' both in government and in academia. His name is Dr. Alan Sabrosky. He believes that Israel committed the September 11th, 2001, attack on the World Trade Center and Pentagon. He was interviewed by Susan Modaress. You can view the video here if you so desire.

Truthfully I completely disagree with Dr. Sabrosky. It is not that Israel does not have the means or the skills to carry something like that out. To me it simply just does not make sense for Israel to have committed the attack for the following reasons:

Israel

There are a lot of Israeli detractors here in the U.S. Just go ahead and take a look at some of the YouTube 'anti' Israel videos and the number of page views they get. It is not a minor detail.

The Israeli government knows that as well (paragraph above). Hence, as there was at the time and currently remains no critical reason to risk the exposure of an attack against the U.S., why do it? Besides, if caught, the retribution could be most terrible indeed. Oh, have no fear, we shall get back to Israel — later on in the story.

Usama bin Laden and al-Qaeda

Even during the spring and summer of 2001 most members of the U.S. federal government who had been previously briefed on the "phenomenon" called al-Qaeda refused to believe an attack would be carried out against the U.S. and far more importantly on U.S. soil. That was basically unthinkable. Hence, they simply gaffed the CIA and, believe it or not, CNN off as merely crying 'wolf'.

Back in the mid-90's Usama bin Laden (UBL) had, on an Arab television station, actually declared war against the U.S. Indeed, CNN reporter Peter Arnett was the person who was able to interview UBL (in a cave located in the mountains outside of Kabul, Afghanistan) and ask why declare war against us (though it was CNN correspondent Peter Bergen who was the one to get the interview set up). UBL provided a list of reasons (at least to him they were logical reasons) and also stated that because we citizens elect our government, we also must share in the responsibility with our government. This interview was broadcast on CNN and, according to Bergen, received very little airplay or at the very least was severely downplayed.

Al-Qaeda, as an Islamic based organization, recruited Muslim men from approximately 60 different countries. That also means you have men speaking 60 different languages. Hence, the mere linguistics could be a real nightmare. So, al-Qaeda literally made their statements or pronouncements in the 'clear'. As such everybody could understand them and everybody, including their enemies, would be singing to the same sheet of music, so to speak.

Speaking in the 'clear' also fulfilled an important religious requirement: Under Islamic law, as I understand, Muslims must warn their enemy prior to war taking place. And they did, numerous times.

As an organization al-Qaeda was a complete unknown until the very late 1990's or 2000. How it was able to stay so completely covert, even to its friends, is in itself quite an accomplishment. Additionally, when an intelligence organization (such as the CIA) provides the U.S. federal government with something along the lines of:

'This bunch is going to attack us and do it soon'.

Most of the time the following are missing:

Time,

Place,

Method, and always;

Recommendations.

You never make a recommendation unless directed to. So, when trying to tie a covert organization such as al-Qaeda into a possible terrorist attack scenario it is going to be very difficult, if not impossible, to provide accurate, timely information.

For the most part you just don't have all the information you need to give the top level what they need in order to make a rational decision. Additionally, at the time (pre 9/11) there was in place and held basically sacrosanct a law or legal doctrine called "the wall." In essence "the wall" kept intelligence agencies from providing information to law enforcement and counter intelligence agencies (mostly that meant the FBI was kept completely in the dark) based on, I believe, the Fourth, Fifth, Sixth and Fourteenth Amendments of our Constitution. I also believe that "the wall" doctrine may have been changed post 9/11, possibly courtesy of the Patriot act. I am not sure.

From the very, very few videos I have seen about the "Manhattan Raid" and the very few papers I have read about the attack "core al-Qaeda" while acting as a cheerleader for the 19 men who committed the mass murders did not even once, that I am aware of, actually claim credit or demand credit for the raid. UBL and core al-Qaeda were highly educated men, both intellectually and religiously, and I truly suspect they knew what the ramifications could be should they either claim credit or demand credit.

The 19 men who committed the heinous deed did in fact video tape their last will and testament. Some of these, perhaps all of them, have been translated into English. If the translations are accurate the very few bits I have seen have young (university age) men, riding a religious 'high,' basically telling the U.S. government and We the People to get out of Muslim lands and do it now. These were made in advance of the the attack and fulfilled, once again, the religious requirement to warn one's enemies before committing war against them.

I am quite sure the infamous 19 were probably trained in the urban warfare camps run by al-Qaeda in Afghanistan. Where they received actual flight training is still somewhat disputed. Some claim here in the U.S. Others, including some of the upper levels of core al-Qaeda, claim the "heros" received most of their training at the camps and only basic flight training in the U.S. I suspect that debate shall rage on for quite sometime to come.